Bill Clinton used the phrase “illegal alien” to refer to immigrants without legal status like a green card, Regan and Bush were very pro immigration and both gave amnesty to immigrants in the US without legal status so they could stay in the US work, and apply for legal status, Clinton beat HW Bush by attacking him for the right on immigration, stoking racist hate towards Mexicans, Chicanos, and other Hispanics, which beat Bush badly, the GOP has been as hard line anti-immigrant as possible ever since, in fact Bod Dole lost a lot of votes by saying he wanted military all along the southern boarder, and as stupid as it was then it still is today, even though the average racist American views all Hispanic peoples as Mexicans who illegally enter on foot or swimming, the vast majority of undocumented or authorized immigrants enter on planes, with legal status. Staying Legal in the US is like going to the DMV and getting your car registered, except the rules always change, your job at work can lie and say they are sponsoring you, or processing paperwork for you until you are illegal and face zero consequences, the enforcing officers can make up rules on the spot and process deportation and imprisonment against your legal rights, and even if you have a lawyer, you might never get resolution on any matter, you could end up stuck in prison without any way to sort of what got you there as “they were suspected of a crime, so we won’t be processing anything” using the unjustified arrest or detainment AS the pretext for the continued legal abuse.

where was I? oh yeah. Clinton used to say it a lot in the 90’s was a whole buzzword.